Electronic Arts to develop three new Marvel games

Electronic Arts, better known as EA, will reportedly be developing three new Marvel games.

Bloomberg reports that EA has struck a deal with Marvel to develop three games based on Marvel properties, the first of which is EA Motive’s Iron Man, which was announced in late September. At the time of announcement, EA said that the single-player Iron Man game would be “the first of several new games”, and now we know that means three — at least for now.

EA’s chief operating officer Laura Miele hopes that the deal will bring players in who otherwise haven’t shown interest in EA’s other properties, such as FIFA.

“We have an intentional, deliberate strategy to have a balanced portfolio,” Miele said. “There will be Marvel fans who don’t play other EA games. That’s been true with Star Wars.”

The publisher has previously worked with Disney on Star Wars games, delivering titles such as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars Battlefront, and Star Wars: Squadrons. Miele reportedly struck up a deal with Marvel after reaching out to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige for advice, and eventually striking up a working relationship with Marvel’s head of gaming Jay Ong.

EA has collaborated with Disney on Star Wars games, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Picture: Respawn Entertainment

Games based on Marvel characters have been developed by a number of different developers in recent years. Some of those have been quite successful, such as Eidos-Montréal’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Team Ninja’s Switch-exclusive action-RPG Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. Others haven’t fared so well, however, with Crystal Dynamics’ Avengers game facing heavy criticism at launch for its middling combat, underwhelming multiplayer and litany of bugs and glitches.

Marvel's Avengers, developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix, is one of the heavily criticised attempts to adapt the Marvel universe into a video game. Picture: Square Enix

EA’s own games have not been immune from criticism either, with Star Wars: Battlefront II heavily criticised by players upon launch for its excessive monetisation strategy. The backlash was followed by what would become a lesson in bad PR, when a community manager on the game’s official subreddit wrote what would become the most down-voted comment in Reddit’s history.

Still, recent successes with games like Apex Legends, the ongoing FIFA series, and its EA Originals indie program have restored some faith in the company among gamers. It remains to be seen how these new Marvel projects will pan out, or which heroes in the Marvel library they’ll be based on, but given how popular Marvel is, they’ll be sure to grab some attention when they’re shown off.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.